Black Friday Price Cuts to Fuel Historic Demand for Tablets

Tablet shipments in North America will, for the first time, surpass notebook shipments, fueled by demand from Black Friday shoppers, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

Demand for tablets during the day-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy will help bring fourth-quarter North America tablet shipments to 21.5 million units, outpacing the 14.6 million notebooks and mini-notes expected to ship in the same timeframe. Price cuts also are expected to feed the appetite for tablets such as the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire on Black Friday; later in the holiday season, Apple’s iPad will also contribute to the clamor. 

Then, as of 2013, 80 million tablets will be shipped, compared to 63.8 million notebooks, NPD DisplaySearch found. However, worldwide, tablets won’t start out-shipping notebooks until 2015, the firm said.

There are several reasons why North America accounts for the most shipments. More than 70 percent of U.S. households already have PCs, and more consumers want tablets than notebooks. There also has been a slowdown in notebook production over the last two years, according to NPD DisplaySearch. And, Amazon and Google, for example, are among the big names pushing tablet sales in the U.S. and Canada.